Klein’s Bill Clinton misses mark

Joe Klein, who writes about politics for The New Yorker, knows a great deal about campaigns, the legislative history of the 1990s, and the careers of Bill and Hillary Clinton. But he seems unaware of the psalmist’s warning about putting one’s faith in princes. Klein seems to have fallen very hard for Bill Clinton, and in his memoir, disguised as a “first rough draft of history” “The Natural: The Misunderstood Presidency of Bill Clinton” the lover’s agony can make for painful reading.

Klein’s thesis is unconventional: that Clinton’s “gaudy personal failings” disguised “a serious, disciplined, responsible presidency.” And speaking for posterity, he claims that Clinton “never received credit for the essential coherence of his vision.” The problem is that Klein never takes the trouble to develop his thesis, and his status as a Baby Boomer trumps his debut as a political theorist. Instead of exposing misperceptions about Bill Clinton, or demonstrating that his presidency was a solid success and not an entertaining failure, Klein has written a history “the most compelling politician of his generation.”

In their own way, those relations are interesting, and revealing about both men; but they tell us considerably more about Klein than about Clinton.

First, we are reminded that there is nothing quite so blind as a smitten journalist. The first time Klein met Clinton, the young governor approached him, “unbidden,” and praised a recent article. Klein was duly flattered, and a pattern was set.

Throughout Clinton’s presidency, Klein would be periodically summoned to the White House for private chats. It seems never to have occurred to him that Clinton might have had some purpose in mind other than thirst for Klein’s opinion, or hunger for approval. On occasion, Clinton appears to have used Klein as a safety valve, venting his spleen at myriad enemies and relating anecdotes that are obvious inventions.

Second, Klein’s affinity for Clinton distorts his view of the president’s adversaries. Klein is not blind to Clinton’s weaknesses, but criticism from outside sources drives him to distraction. Clinton’s critics had their own faults, to be sure, but Klein’s posture and vocabulary are remarkably juvenile. The House majority leader is a “loud-mouthed libertarian,” one Republican senator is an “antediluvian Visigoth,” Speaker Newt Gingrich an “American Mullah.” Klein is particularly splenetic about the press, which is easy to be splenetic about. But when the mildest dissent is recorded, Klein’s outrage knows no bounds.

All of which is too bad, for Bill Clinton is a figure of infinite interest, in need of a competent chronicler. He personifies the paradoxical relationship between high intelligence and success in the American presidency. With perhaps two or three exceptions, it is likely that no president came to office with intellectual equipment superior to Clinton’s. As Klein repeatedly relates, Clinton’s knowledge of issues, grasp of detail and insight into human nature are impressive; so, for that matter, is his capacity to talk about these things at excessive length. The problem is that ours is not a parliamentary system, in which setting such gifts might be more suitable. And Clinton’s omniscience led to exhaustive internal debate, and indecisiveness.

Clinton’s political skills are palpable, but narrowly drawn. It is true that Clinton had a peculiar ability to overcome peril, to thrive in adversity; but his instinct for survival was largely confined to his own.

To all of this must be added the personal element. Europeans were naturally mystified by the American reaction to the Clinton sex scandals. But the domestic reaction was complicated, to say the least. It is useful to bear in mind the peculiar status of the president: He is, at once, head of state and government, paterfamilias and constitutional monarch. His private life, for good or ill, is a matter of public interest.

The revelation that Clinton had been gratifying himself with a buxom intern roughly his daughter’s age alternately appalled and delighted his countrymen. Far from the Puritan crusade Joe Klein depicts, the official reaction to Clinton’s dalliance was an awkward recognition that it could hardly be ignored he had lied about it, after all, to a grand jury investigating an earlier sexual catastrophe. Like his enigmatic marriage to the formidable Hillary Rodham, Clinton’s willingness to gamble his presidency for Monica Lewinsky remains a mystery.